An economics professor made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. This particular class had insisted that the current socialist movement in America is working and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich; a great equalizer.

The professor responded to the class, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. On tests all grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade. (Substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all students.)

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the students who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too, so they studied little.

The second test average was a D. No one was happy.

When the third test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told the class that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Here’s a little food for thought. We continue to witness politicians and the federal government come up with new ways to shell out dollars to more and more social programs. In my personal opinion this country is quickly becoming a welfare state. But here is the simple truth…The government can’t give anything to anybody that it does not first take from somebody else, monetarily speaking.

We are on a slippery slope. You see I believe that the ones that are being taken from are growing tired of footing the bill for those that are capable to take on their load of the share. What happens when these citizens decide they do not want to pay anymore and all want to be dependent upon the government? How will the government sustain itself?

Some may say, “But there are no jobs.” Really? Or could it be that these folks, such as some of the occupy crowd, are not seeking a job if it’s not exactly what they want.

There were several hundred protestors that took part in the recent Occupy Atlanta protests. I checked the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s website and searched the classifieds for jobs in the Atlanta area. After the search I learned that there were approximately 1,005 jobs listed on the newspapers website. Millions upon millions of hard-working Americans arise every morning and go to a job that is not their exact pick for a profession.

There are jobs available, but again I have to question if some people have discovered that it may be easier to live off the government than to work a real job.

It’s time to send a message to our current leaders up in the “kool-aid-drinking fantasy land” that is Washington, D.C. Stop making people more and more dependent on the government or be voted out!

So what your saying is that you saw roughly 1000 jobs available. Numbers game here......5 million people live in Atlanta and the metropolitan area. Now their is 10.7% unemployment, which makes up to roughly 500,000 people looking for jobs, and with your numbers of 1000 that only accounts for .2% of the unemployed population. So the 499,000 people are bums?

Bad Teacher: While you have the blinders on it might be a good time to point your tunnel vision at this fact:
"The US witnesses 50 to 60 million drug addiction cases sprout up every year. With that in mind, 13 million of these drug addiction cases are found in Atlanta today."
So, to answer your sarcastic question--Yes, I suspect 499,000 bums would be a good guess. You ignored a perfectly good analogy in Jamie's column to make yourself look clever. I really hope you are NOT a teacher in Appling County.

NO thats not what hes saying. It's Atlanta there are certainly more than 1000 job openings. Maybe not 100,000 dollars a year but something that most able bodied people would be able to do. The bottom line is he is right and people that dont want to work are the ones draging the country down.

The ignorance in these comments I find ignorant. 499,000 people are useless drug addicts? Yes some people are lazy and don't want to work and I will give you that, but that many people and to classify ALL of them " lazy" is ignorance. Their is currently 3.3 million job openings in the United States, and take the by the current 8.7% unemployment, you do the math.

You say ignorance. I say on the money. Mr. Gardner's comments are using an example of possibilities available to "some". There are over 100,000 job listings in the metro-Atlanta area. Check area websites and you'll see. If this is about numbers, that would put a dent in your unemployment rate. I think he is correct; "some" would rather take advantage of the system rather than earn a living.

yes indeedy, I do believe there are at least 499,000 bums in Metro Atlanta. If the official report says there are half a million you can bet that there are twice as many. And your point is good--not all addicts are bums. I am a recovering addict and I can attest to that. But statistics are always misleading and almost always on the low side in cases like this. What the Editor was saying is the truth...there are hundreds of thousands of people who want to be wards of the government and do not want to be responsible for their own actions or their own welfare. They want to make babies willy-nilly, support the illicit drug trade and then be rewarded for their actions by the government. By the working citizens. That's Jamie's point and you really cannot argue sensibly against it. Unless your check was late.

golly pete....you horrify easily, don't you? I agree that poor grammar is a serious problem and getting worse but in the context of this posting about Jamie's excellent article don't you think it's kinda silly? He's talking about the people who are dragging down our country and you're worried about grammar? Holy Cats, wake up and snort the petunias.

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